Flannel Friday-Twinkle Twinkle Little Star

I am a big fan of using props in story time!  If it can be done quickly for 30+ kids, it is even better.  These stars on a stick turned out really cute and with little effort.  The toddlers love having props to hold and the glitter adds a little extra pizazz.

To make these yourself, you will need craft sticks, fun foam and glitter glue.  After cutting out the star shapes, use Tacky glue to attach them to the craft sticks.  While you can use paper stars instead of foam ones, you can't laminate the paper or they will pop right off.  After the glue is dry, spread glitter glue around the edges of the stars to make them sparkle.

I use these in my story times when we sing Twinkle Twinkle Little Star.  If you don't like to sing, try the recording done by Lisa Loeb and Elizabeth Mitchell of Twinkle Twinkle on their Catch the Moon cd.  These work great for many different ages, from 2-year olds through my sensory story time kids (ages 3-10).

If you are looking for an additional use for these, we will be making them in our toddler craft event this summer (for ages 2-3).  The toddlers will use a glue dot to attach the star to a craft stick.  Then they will spread glue from a glue stick on the star and dip in loose glitter.

Flannel Friday-Color Birds

It is always great to find a flannelboard rhyme that can double as a game. The Color Birds rhyme is a great example.  Originally published in Totline (May/June 1987), it can also be found online or in The Best of Totline Flannelboards.

Color Birds

Yellow bird, yellow bird, high in a tree,

How many yellow things can you see?

Blue bird, blue bird, high in a tree,

How many blue things can you see?

Red bird, red bird, high in a tree,

How many red things can you see?

Green bird, green bird, high in a tree,

How many green things can you see?

The birds are all made out of fun foam with permanent marker details.  The eyes are googly eyes.  If you get adventurous, you can also add more color birds, such as orange, brown, or purple.

This is a great rhyme for young children, because you are saying the color, then showing the color in the birds.  This helps to reinforce that words have meaning.  Then, if you let the kids answer the questions in the rhyme, they are taking the language skills to the next level and finding things, such as the carpet, pieces of clothing, story time props, etc., that match those colors.  (Just a side note-if you ask the questions, you have to leave enough time to listen to the answers.  Almost all of the kids will answer and it will probably all be at the same time!)

Flannel Friday-Lunch

Denise' Fleming's Lunch is one of my favorite story time books as it covers many things which toddlers love and recognize, especially food and colors!  Also, with the way that Fleming puts the color on one page and the fruit on the next, it allows the toddlers to guess what is coming.  We all know how they love games!

The shapes are all cut with an AccuCut machine and decorated with puffy paint for the details (individual grapes, kernels of corn, apple leaves, etc.) I also didn't have access to a turnip die so ours is a radish cut from white and green felt.  If you don't have access to the dies and aren't a fan of freehand cutting, Microsoft Publisher has a lot of these shapes that you can use as a pattern.

Flannel Friday-There Was an Old Lady

It is always difficult to find St. Patrick's Day stories that are appropriate for 2-year olds.  I was excited when we just received our copies of There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Clover by Lucille Colandro, because it is perfect for this age group.  Plus, it lends itself really well to flannel!

At this time I don't have an old lady, but I may add one made out of paper bag (so the pieces can go inside as she swallows them).  You can see there are pieces for the clover, daisy, butterfly, bird, pot, gold, fiddle, leprechaun, and rainbow.  If you haven't read Colando's stories before, definitely pick them up.  They are perfect story time reads.